Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Not Long Remembered? Au Contraire, Mister Lincoln

Echoing Lincoln, keynote speaker and Civil War
historian James McPherson said the president took the dais in November
1863 at a time when it looked like the nation “might indeed perish from
the earth.”

“The Battle of Gettysburg became the hinge of fate
on which turned the destiny of that nation and its new birth of
freedom,” McPherson.

In the July 1863 battle, considered the turning
point of the war, federal forces turned back a Confederate invasion of
Pennsylvania. Lincoln’s speech was delivered more than four months
later, at the dedication of a national cemetery to bury the battle’s
casualties.

“Lincoln would have been surprised by the reverence
accorded to him by future generations,” McPherson said, noting Lincoln
himself held in high regard the country’s founders.

He said the Gettysburg Address, despite its
brevity, managed to weave together themes of past, present and future;
continent, nation and battlefield; and birth, death and rebirth.

“Men died that the nation might live,” McPherson
said. “Yet the old nation also died,” and with it, a system of bondage
that enslaved some 4 million Americans.

Contacting Madame L

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We agree on etiquette

Madame L suggested that commenters follow these rules:---Never be mean, snarky, or vulgar.---Express even strong disagreements with politeness and civility.---Greet the day with a song. (Off-line---unless you want to share the chorus with Madame L and her readers)

One commenter has added these suggestions:

My grandma, born in Germany but raised in Kentucky, taught me this:-Work hard - there are no excuses for not.-Work smart - if you think about it as you go you won't waste a lot of time reinventing something.-Be kind - always, to everyone.